Dear O'Abby: How do I deal with this in reviews?

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm a recently published author and I got a review in which the writer mentioned that they were excited to read my book because the author (me) was from the same country as they were.  They then went on to express their disappointment that US spelling and punctuation was used throughout, mentioning that it made the story feel generic and not of the author's home country.

My publisher is US-based and their style guide requires US spelling and punctuation.  It's something I've had to learn as I went through the publication process as we use British spelling and punctuation where I come from.  It still makes me feel weird when I read passages from my books and I see Mum as Mom, but that's what my editor asked me to do.

Is there any way to explain this to a reviewer?  I don't feel like it's a fair criticism.

All the best,

Guideless

Dear Guideless,

It's never a good idea to reply to reviewers.  They are as entitled to their opinion as you are.  And yes, this criticism seems unfair, but in reality, it's not a critique of your story.  If that's the only thing they found to nit-pick about, you're lucky!

Reviewers don't necessarily understand the publication process or that different publishers have different style-guides  (my publisher's style guide doesn't allow the use of semi-colons) which dictate how your writing ends up on the page.  And they don't need to know that.  Their role is to write about what they like and don't like about a particular book.

The best thing to do is to ignore this particular review.  Many writers don't read their reviews at all because it's better for their mental health not to know what people are saying about their work.  If you have decided that you do want to read them, you have to be prepared for the bad ones and learn to shake them off.  Even if you think the reviewer's criticism is unfounded.  If you're not able to do that, then perhaps you need to re-think your policy on reading reviews.

I hope that helps.

Have a wonderful New Year and here's to 2022 being filled with rapturous reviews.

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby, Punctuation woes

Dear O'Abby,

I'm published by a small press and have discovered during the editorial process that they have a style guide that forbids the use of semi-colons in their books.  Now, I don't over-use semi-colons, but I do use them where it's appropriate, and I like the feel and rhythm they give my prose.  Having removed them all for my editor, I feel like several passages now feel wrong.  The rhythm is off.  The meaning, of those sentences hasn't changed exactly, but has subtly shifted.

Do you have any advice? I mean, why have a policy like that in the first place?

Yours,

Semi-Punctuated

Dear Semi-Punctuated,

I don't think there is anything you can do in this situation. It's frustrating, I know. My small press publisher has the same policy and it irritates me every time my editor removes one of my lovingly placed semi-colons.

If you want to continue writing for this publisher, you will need to work within their style guide.  Maybe try writing your next book without any semi-colons.  Or edit them out yourself before you submit the manuscript so at least you have control over the way the sentences sound and feel without the semi-colons.

Or of course, you could look for a different publisher for your next book.  But you may find other publishers have the same style-guide.  And if not using semi-colons is the only complaint you have about your publisher, you might want to think long and hard about this option.  If you're happy with everything else they do, is this really a deal breaker?

As for why a publisher might have a policy like that, I can only hazard a guess that they were getting too many manuscripts in which authors over-used semi-colons or mis-used them frequently.  Or perhaps the editors themselves are unsure about how to use them properly and felt it was easier to just say no than to try and figure out if each one a writer uses is correct or not.  I don't know.

I know this doesn't solve your issue, but hopefully you now know you are not alone in this boat.

X O'Abby

Old English and Other Sins

One of the things that makes me cringe when I read my early writing is my inflated language and tendency to overuse adverbs.

Instead of saying, "He shivered," I might instead write, "Without thinking, he shivered unwittingly, sending a chill up and down his spinal cord."

For some reason, and I think this is fairly common, I believed that the fancier the language, the better received the work would be. I had excellent English teachers who encouraged me to choose strong, straight-forward words rather than flowery prose. Still, I managed to...

insert within my initial manuscripts verbosity fit to rankle even the most patient, longsuffering, and nurturing of English teachers. 

See what I mean? I think it comes also from reading too much. Can you read too much? Probably not in general, but if you read too much of the classics, or of fairy tales, or of anything old, you're likely to run into the same problem I had: a propensity toward flowery language and grotesque verbosity, the likes of which are rarely seen this side of 1800.

Sneaky little, old phrases and usages may find themselves squashed between your more modern lines of dialogue... like, "Upon seeing her, he ducked behind the conveniently located gumdrop barrel." Or maybe... "Initially he stiffened before softening under her magnanimous touch."  

Now, I'm not saying these are wrong ways of writing. I'm simply saying they are a very specific style of writing, and as writers we need to be careful our style of writing is conducive to the genre and age category. If you're writing regency romance, for instance, ignore this post entirely. Or go laugh to yourself about how liberating it is to use the word "thine" without having to mask it with irony.

But if you happen to write for kids, consider conscientiously filling your own mind with kid speak so that what seeps out when you sit down to write is more... palatable to your chosen audience.

What do you think? Have you ever read an old classic and wished children's writers still wrote like L. Frank Baum or Lewis Carroll?